Meet Deng Thiak Adut.
A former child soldier from South Sudan, Deng was smuggled out of Sudan and ended up in Australia, where he became a defense lawyer, co-founder and managing partner at the Australian Criminal Law Group in Sydney, and was named 2017 New South Wales Australian of the Year.
It sounds like an inspiring story of success against the odds.
But unfortunately, I am not posting about Deng because of his truly inspirational journey.
I am posting about him because he has joined the ranks of the vile and hateful.
Today, he posted the following on Instagram:
and the following on Facebook, expressing jubilation over the devastating fires in California:
The “burning children in Gaza” mention should be a clue as to his equally despicable views on the conflict here, as are evidenced by other posts of his in which he calls for an end to Israel, while expressing solidarity not just with the palestinian Arabs but Hamas:
He also implies we are worse than Hitler:
while assuring us he likes Jews:
Yeah, I’m not feeling the love:
and Deng doesn’t strike me as someone you want angry:
Come to think of it, that does sound like Hamas.
Naturally, he also wants the US gone too:
What went wrong, Deng?
That leads me to those who are settled Australians. This past few years there have been unexpected fears, the fears that random atrocities such as those that took place in Bali, and more recently in London, Paris and Istanbul will come here. We scarcely notice the frequency of such acts in other places where terror, not freedom from fear, is the norm.
Fears and doubt are the ideal environment in which to breed misguided obsessions and grand delusions. There is nothing new in such manipulation. It was done to me. Such manipulation of the confused and searching spirit of youth is essential for those who use others in their quest for power.
In responding to tragedies in which the lives of victims and perpetrators alike have been snuffed out to serve some demagogue, we must all be careful not to let local opportunists exploit our emotions with simplistic solutions.
